MANDATORY CRIME REPORTING IS NEEDED

The numbers don't add up.

Missouri officials may never know the true extent of the methamphetamine crisis across the state because of incomplete reporting. Missouri is one of only two states that don't require mandatory reporting of crime statistics.

Want to know how many traffic accidents occur in the state? Want to see the number of fatalities or drunken drivers? That's easy. Traffic statistics are readily available in the state. Those statistics are required by the state to be reported.

But if you're trying to find out how many meth labs were busted or the exact number of homicides in Missouri last year, forget it.

A survey of Missouri police and sheriff's departments suggests that as many as 40 percent of meth busts aren't reported to the state. Other crime statistics share a similar fate.

Missouri should be ashamed of its level of crime statistic reporting. The General Assembly should legislate this much-needed and long overdue change in the coming session.

Why does it matter? Two reasons.

First, money. Most grants and incentive programs are tied directly to need. More than $8 million in federal funds went toward the meth battle in Missouri in 1997. And that was based on incomplete numbers.

The second reason is planning. Missouri cannot muscle up sufficient manpower and training to address the meth problem if it is unaware of how bad it is. It would be like fighting a fire with a blindfold on.

It's time to take the blinders off.

Many of the larger police and sheriff departments voluntarily turn in crime statistics to the FBI. In turn, the state can access that information. But many smaller law enforcement agencies don't share their numbers.

What's needed is for everyone to report this information directly to the state. Then Missouri can disseminate the data to the FBI, the Legislature or anyone else who needs it. Missouri needs a central state repository of crime statistical information.

The legislative mandate to report crime statistics must also have some teeth to it. In other words, the state should use its big stick -- money. The state reimburses counties for certain expenses and grants. Funding for law enforcement purposes should be tied to reporting of crime statistics.

Sheriff John Jordan sits on the Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area advisory board for Missouri. This lack of firm numbers is a headache for HIDTA, because it's hard to determine who in Missouri needs money most, said the sheriff. The other four states that are members of HIDTA -- Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota -- all have centralized crime reporting.

Of course, centralized crime reporting would carry a price tag. It might require additional manpower at the state level to collect and crunch the numbers, and the state's computer system might need to be updated to handle the additional data. But it is also highly likely that increased federal aid would offset these increased state costs.

The federal government also needs to take a look at reporting on illegal-drug statistics, because the national numbers don't add up. DEA figures are the most-often quoted numbers, and they may not be the best figures to use.

For example, sometimes it's said that Missouri leads the nation in meth lab busts. But that's based solely on DEA figures. In fact, California seizes far more meth labs. In 1997, state troopers and the DEA seized 740 meth labs in Missouri. In California, the DEA seized 191 labs that year. But local and state authorities there seized nearly 2,000 more. The DEA numbers alone under represent the extent of the meth crisis.

Missouri needs mandatory crime statistic reporting, and the nation needs a better system to ensure complete drug figures are used. Only then will America realize how immense the meth crisis has become and attack the problem with the tenacity needed to crush this epidemic.